This little gem delivers responsibly on its subtitle and should be in every "certified" therapist's waiting room: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Risks and Benefits of Psychotherapy But Didn't Want to Have to Pay a Therapist to Find Out. Women in particular who are either considering some form of therapy or analysis or are recovering from (all too common) retraumatizing psychotherapy will also want to read the equally hard-won wisdom shared in books such as In Session by Deborah Lott, Mockingbird Years by Emily Fox Gordon and A Shining Affliction by Annie G. Rogers. If you are considering therapy while finding yourself asking "Is it me or is it you?" -- also take a quick look at Stop Walking on Eggshells by Randi Kreger and Paul Mason. In any case, Joan Mazza's gift is priceless self help.

This is a terrific book and a must-read for anyone interested in therapy for any reason. As a consumer of psychotherapy and psychiatric services, I know how hard it is to find and evaluate appropriate care, and I wish I had this book when I was first looking for help. Mazza's clear and easy-to-understand descriptions of the astonishing range of approaches to therapy and mental health are fantastic. They also provide a critical reminder that any one person or system of thought cannot provide all of the answers to life's questions. I have read other books by Joan Mazza and have heard her speak. Her commitment to helping people gain and maintain personal autonomy is admirable and inspiring.

I wish there was such a book when I was working in the mental health field. Joan Mazza's survey of psychotherapy covers in brief just about every area of a wide topic,and the extensive (30 pages) bibliography then directs the reader to more comprehensive treatments. This is a book for the 21st century: Ms. Mazza clearly lists patient's rights and responsibilities, stressing the importance of personal empowerment, over "victimology", i.e. passive surrender to mental health experts. I highly reccommend this book to anyone actively seeking direction for their own mental health work. If anything, the wide array of possibilities can be mind-boggling; I found it inspiring.

I am a psychotherapist in private practice who has utilized "Things that tick me off" as a therapeutic tool with several clients. It has been a remarkable asset in their quest to get in touch with internalized and externalized anger. Many of the exercises assist in appropriately re-directing anger, allowing clients to reconfigure their lives and move toward a healthier and happier life.

This journal is unusual in that it helps its reader to identify and examine anger triggers. It is a great source of information on anger and provides a path to anger management. I can see how it would help anyone to become a master of their emotions.
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It's true: many of us only write in a journal when we're unhappy, mad, ticked off. Journals are so good for that kind of catharsis. Joan Mazza's guided journal, Things That Tick Me Off, may be where you turn when you need a safe place to ventilate, but because Mazza is so skilled at what she does, you'll likely end up feeling much more relaxed. You might even tap into some creativity while you're emoting according to the many prompts she provides.

Divided into chapters that cover such hot button stress areas as work, personal life, and world affairs, this book also has a lot to say about how to transform your anger into something that can do you -- and maybe others -- some good. A great starting point if journaling is new to you, and a good new beginning if you've become bored with your same old diary.

In my own life, I've found that focused, "one subject" journals like this can be enormously helpful and satisfying. As if anger didn't swoosh over into ALL areas at times! It's even possible that by tapping into all that fury and frustration, you might be able to convert what you come up with into something creative. A story, a poem, a letter?

I particularly liked this book because it not only requires its reader to look inward in relation to dreams, it explains interpreting dreams. Thus, it provides tools for growth and development rather than just passive examination. I recommend this to anyone interested in learning more about themselves.
Anne jones

What a great idea: a book that gently aims you in the directionof keeping your own dream journal. With wise and supportive guidance,questions, prompts, and information about what dreams can mean and howyou can use them to discover more about yourself, this inexpensivehardbound volume lures you into writing about your sleeping life.Text and blank pages are interwoven so as to make the process as easyas could be. And rather than limiting you as so many books do --those books that tell you to write one dream per page or whatever --this one allows you to figure out how YOU can best record your dreamsfor your own pleasure and benefit. The illustrations are minimal andsomehow soothing.

If you're like me and haven't read a non-fiction book about sex since college, then you will love "Exploring Your Sexual Self" by Joan Mazza. On the other hand, if you have been reading other books about sex, I know you will find this guided journal superior in its approach to human sexuality. Mazza allows the reader to explore, without shame or confusion, a wide range of topics from fantasies and orientation to solitary sex and romance. Two of my favorite chapters are "Firsts" and "Lovemaps." The prompts or questions at the end of each chapter are refreshing and stimulating (no pun intended) and even if you choose not to journal a response for every question, all of them help you to acknowledge and formulate a greater self-awareness and healing about many sexual issues. In fact, this book is about more than just discovering yourself sexually -- it is ultimately about the understanding and integration of one of life's most powerful and natural forces into our whole selves as conscious and sensitive human beings. And as with Mazza's other published books and articles on various subjects, she writes with heart, humor and a compassionate eye.

What I particularly like about this book is the variety of approaches to self discovery it offers. Readers are invited to construct a puzzle from their dreams, daydreams and personal visions to discover the larger messages coming from their unconscious. Joan Mazza always gives the power to her readers, not offering advice as much as inviting them to find their own path. If you're in the mood for a mini vision quest, this is the perfect book to get you started.

In Dream Back Your Life, Joan follows her Dreaming Your Real Self with yet another journey to our disovery of the restorative processes and the understanding our dreams have for us. Easy to read and comfortable as a close friend, Joan moves us through steps, ideas, and methods for us to take charge of our dreams and learn from their messages.

I totally enjoyed this book! I tend to skim self-help books rather than read them completely, but Joan Mazza's style really drew me in. I found many practical examples of how to utilize each concept presented, which for me is very helpful. What really drew me though, was her overall approach. "This book is about making friends with your mind" says the author, and that is just the type of approach I find so valuable in letting go of some of the denial/defensiveness we have been raised with that makes it hard to truly look at ourselves. And the nice thing about exploring your dreams is it is totally personal, you re not making yourself vulnerable to others, it is a fascinating journey of self discovery. I recommend this book to anyone who wants more tools for effective self exploration.

I could tell at first glance that Joan Mazza's Dreaming Your Real Self was a credible book about this intriguing topic, that it wasn't one of those silly books that tries to tell you that this means that and no two ways about it. And the further I got into it, the more pleased I was. First of all, she lets readers know that she's only suggesting possible ways to think about their dreams. When it comes to dreams, clearly, what any dream therapist or author claims is only valuable if it helps you understand yourself in some way. Next, I like that her focus is on health and self-knowledge, not merely on diagnosing neuroses or worse. And then, her approach is such a joyful one: she helps us find out how our dreams are very likely making secret rebels of us all.

Dreaming Your Real Self is practical too. For instance, I've been having this recurrent dream about babies (often rather prococious babies), and I checked her section on what this might mean. It began when my nest emptied, so I assumed I had it all figured out. Yet I got some surprising insights, especially that the symbols in the dream relate to what's happening to me NOW, even though my subconscious chose this particular type of dream several years ago. Now I've got something to reflect about and work with. Perhaps I'm actually dreaming of my own untapped potential? The works I haven't yet written that keep nagging at me to be born?

She's got a great section on dreams and creativity too, and since the latter is my own area of expertise (I've written a book called Writing in Flow), I read it extra carefully. Mazza is right on target here too, right down to her descriptions of creative flow, and thus proves herself to me as a trustworthy guide to the realm of dreams.

In her book DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF Joan Mazza explores the meaning of dreams. Mazza is a psychologist and licensed mental health counselor with a practice involving work with ongoing dream groups. Mazza also leads dream seminars for mental health professionals. To me, Mazza seems like the Dr. Ruth of dreams-incredibly knowledgeable and pragmatic. Her focus seems to be the significance of dreams for individual dreamers, not the neurological underpinnings of synapses. (However, she briefly addresses some ideas on the why of dreams, such as "the meaningless random firing of neurons in the brain..." and "messages from God, guardian angels, the spirit world, the Higher Self, and the Shadow".)

If you've been wondering what a particular dream could mean, this book should provide you with a good place to begin exploring the subject. Mazza has written a "user-friendly" text in which she discusses material she collected from various sources including her own ongoing dream groups. Her approach involves facilitating an interpretation, not providing it. She suggests each dreamer must act as his own interpreter and she provides some tools to do so.

Her work has lead her to formulate some ideas about "Common Dreams and Themes" such as falling, running, being in public with no clothes on, etc. which she includes in a separate section. I have not experienced every one of the topics she discusses, but have had dreams about being paralyzed, falling, flying, traveling long distances, being terrified by an unknown presence, etc. I found the thematic section most useful as Mazza provides suggestions at the end of each segment in a "try this" paragraph.

Although Mazza finds dreams often appear to have common elements just as often they do not. Even when the dream seems common, the individual dreamer will have his own interpretation. Each of us has unique dreams. As I read Mazza's book, I kept thinking of the narrator in "Rebecca" who opens with "Last night I dreamt again of Manderlay..." I myself had a recurring dream from childhood on, that only became clearer to me as an adult in my forties--and I am still exploring it. The dream may have been a childhood memory or it a memory from a past life. I told my mother every time I had the dream and she would say, oh maybe you are another Bridie Murphy (a reincarnate writer).

Maybe, maybe not, but as a result of this and other dreams, exploring the meaning of dreams has become a lifelong habit. On more than one occasion discovering the meaning of a dream has proved incredibly illuminating. I will never forget a dream I had where I was "sitting on a fence" talking to my ex-boss. This dream helped me to understand my suppressed feelings about my boss. I was literally "on the fence" where he was concerned. Meaningless random firings of neurons indeed. Read Joan Mazza's book and get a handle on your own dream life.

I could tell at first glance that Joan Mazza's Dreaming Your Real Self was a credible book about this intriguing topic, that it wasn't one of those silly books that tries to tell you that this means that and no two ways about it. And the further I got into it, the more pleased I was. First of all, she lets readers know that she's only suggesting possible ways to think about their dreams. When it comes to dreams, clearly, what any dream therapist or author claims is only valuable if it helps you understand yourself in some way. Next, I like that her focus is on health and self-knowledge, not merely on diagnosing neuroses or worse. And then, her approach is such a joyful one: she helps us find out how our dreams are very likely making secret rebels of us all.

Dreaming Your Real Self is practical too. For instance, I've been having this recurrent dream about babies (often rather prococious babies), and I checked her section on what this might mean. It began when my nest emptied, so I assumed I had it all figured out. Yet I got some surprising insights, especially that the symbols in the dream relate to what's happening to me NOW, even though my subconscious chose this particular type of dream several years ago. Now I've got something to reflect about and work with. Perhaps I'm actually dreaming of my own untapped potential? The works I haven't yet written that keep nagging at me to be born?

She's got a great section on dreams and creativity too, and since the latter is my own area of expertise (I've written a bestselling book called WRITING IN FLOW), I read it extra carefully. Mazza is right on target here too, right down to her descriptions of creative flow, and thus proves herself to me as a trustworthy guide to the realm of dreams.